ETHIOPIAN CIVIL SERVICE UNIVERSITY
የኢትዮጵያ ሲቪል ሰርቪስ ዩኒቨርሲቲ
School of Graduate Studies (SGS)
የድሕረ ምረቃ ትምህርት ቤት
Quick reference for procedures
in PhD proposal defense
The Examination panel members for doctoral
proposal defense shall have three members
composed of mainly one external examiner
and two internal examiners. The rest
members include the supervisor and co-
supervisor. Supervisors and co-supervisors
neither mark nor answer questions. One of
the internal examiners will also chair the
defense session. An examiner evaluates a
proposal by filling the form - SGS-PhD: Form-
007-1.
Proposal defense hall
1. Preliminary meeting of examiners
It is carried in adjoining room to the
defense hall while guests wait in their
seats and the student gets ready his/her
presentation. All presentations should be
uploaded to the computer before the
defense session begins. The purpose of
the pre-session meeting is to allow time
for panel members to introduce each
other and agree on the phasing, time
budgeting and order of questioning.
2. Inside the defense hall
Ones inside the hall the CP first
introduces the Examining Panel members
and makes sure all those present
understand the procedures to be
followed. The CP subsequently briefs the
student on budgeting of the time for the
defense and invites him/her to proceed.
The student will be given 20 minutes of
presentation followed by a maximum of
40 minutes of questions-and-answers
session. Examiners will be allowed a 10
minute question period in turn, with the
opportunity to have a second round of
questioning. The CP conducts the sessions
in a professional manner and makes sure
each examiner has the opportunity to ask
questions. The CP will take her/his
round of questions after the external and
internal examiners. The CP can invite other
faculty and students but has the
responsibility to stop when the opinion of
the invited guest seems to jeopardize the
fair assessment of the proposal by the EP
members.
At the end of the question-answer session
panel members take retreat to reach
consensual assessment while the student
and guests remain in the hall.
3. Post-defense discussion
The CP also chairs the post-panel
discussion of the examiners to reach
consensual decision on the overall result
of the proposal examination and
formulate recommendations for further
improvement. He/she ensures that the
examiners complete and sign the relevant
forms at the end of the defense. The CP
will return the completed forms as soon
as a series of sessions is over to the
School of Graduate Studies.
4. Announcing the results
The student and guests rise up to greet
the examining panel members. The
chairperson will announce the examining
panel’s decision with the assessment
recommendations. The CP summarizes
the panel’s recommendations, comments
and corrections needed. Each panelist’s
comment would be given to the student
for reference and improvement as well.
The CP ensures that the recommendation
of the examiners is conveyed to the
student and ascertains whether the
student is clear or not as to what may be
required of her/him. The Chair will then
draw the proceedings to a close.
NB
Post-defense requirements: In case of
“satisfactory” results, the revised version
must be first vetted by supervisors. In case
verifications are needed from the panel, the
corrective actions shall be submitted to the
chairperson and consequently can be handled
by the smaller group of internal examiners. In
case of “unsatisfactory” result it is
resubmission for presentation again.